Wednesday

Didn't know they are called Brush-tailed penguins, did you? They have long stiff tails that give them their name.

These are the most common of all penguins, found in the Antarctica and the islands surrounding. But all of the Brush-tailed penguins require a snow-free nesting area where they build a nest encircled by stones.

1st IK* - Black head, white belly (the Chinstrap penguin has a black top head and a black strap around its chin...like a helmet!)

2nd IK - Long stiff tail

3rd IK - Pink feet

Take a look at the picture below... here's the tuxedo in blonde!

And try to answer these two questions:

What kind of penguins are these?

Is that an albino or a leucistic penguin?

*Identification Key, or IKs, are characteristics used to identify an animal. (More about identification keys here.)

Monday

After my last post showing computer-generated "flying" penguins, I hope you will remember forever that they are birds. Why? Because 40% of people surveyed thought they were mammals! So the answer to my post Can you tell a mammal from...something else?, is two birds, four mammals.

Penguins are fun to get to know, so we'll look at some interesting ones in my next post!

Friday

So why skunks? They are pretty easy to identify, thanks to Bambi's friend Flower. And they are pretty easy to smell, too. But they have lovely coat patterns that are worth seeing.

Asia has its own skunks, called stink badgers. It's now thought that these aren't badgers at all, but skunks...though who knows what they'll be classified as tomorrow? So I have included them on our skunk sheet.

Not included is a skunk that was being cared for at Wildlife Waystation in California, where I worked for awhile. That skunk was, believe it or not, white with black stripes! Wish I had a picture of him to include.

So enjoy the skunks; they are beautiful, too!

And yesterday's creature was a leucistic raccoon...only one respondent figured it out. Congratulations, Eliza.